In nationalism studies, there has been insignificant analysis of the politics of imagining nations. This thesis addresses this lacuna in an examination of the form and design of imagined nations in Scotland and Quebec. I argue that the Scottish National Party and the Parti Quebecois have, since their advent in the 1960s, created a political-civic image of the nation that breaks with previous cultural conceptions. However, cultural images of the nation, propagated by centralist institutions, remain entrenched in contemporary Scotland and Quebec. The juxtaposition of centralist cultural images and nationalist political images of the nation have led to a dualistic, or what I have termed a 'Jekyll and Hyde', national consciousness in both countries. This exercise indicates that images of the nation are subject to multitudinous interpretations and (re)construction by various actors in the competitive state-nation political arena.

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L’analyse statique est une tâche essentielle dans l’optimisation des requêtes et la vérification de la base de graphes RDF. Nous étudions des techniques d’analyse statique pour SPARQL, le langage standard pour l’interrogation des données du Web sémantique. Plus précisément, nous étudions le problème d’inclusion des requêtes et de l’analyse de l’indépendance entre les requêtes et la mise à jour de la base de graphes RDF.Nous sommes intéressés par le développement de techniques grâce à des réductions au problème de la satisfaisabilité de la logique.Nous nous traitons le problème d’inclusion des requêtes SPARQL en présence de l’opérateur OPTIONAL. L’optionalité est l’un des constructeurs les plus compliqués dans SPARQL et aussi celui qui rend ce langage plus expressif que les langages de requêtes classiques, comme SQL.Nous nous concentrons sur la classe de requêtes appelée "well-designed SPARQL", proposées dans la littérature comme un fragment du langage avec de bonnes propriétés en matière d’évaluation des requêtes incluent l’opération OPTIONAL. À ce jour, l’inclusion de requête a été testée à l’aide de différentes techniques: homomorphisme de graphes, bases de données canoniques, techniques de la théorie des automates et réduction au problème de la validité d’une logique. Dans cette thèse, nous utilisons la dernière technique pour tester l’inclusion des requêtes SPARQL avec OPTIONAL utilisant une logique expressive appelée «logique K». En utilisant cette technique, il est possible de régler le problème d’inclusion des requêtes pour plusieurs fragment de SPARQL, même en présence de schémas. Cette extensibilité n’est pas garantie par les autres méthodes.Nous montrons comment traduire a graphe RDF en un système de transitions, ainsi que une requête SPARQL en une formula K. Avec ces traductions, l’inclusion des requêtes dans SPARQL peut être réduite au test de la validité d’une formule logique. Un avantage de cette approche est d’ouvrir la voie pour des implémentations utilisant solveurs de satisfiabilité pour K.Nous présentons un banc d’essais de tests d’inclusion pour les requêtes SPARQL avec OPTIONAL. Nous avons effectué des expériences pour tester et comparer des solveurs d’inclusion de l’état de l’art.Nous présentons également un aperçu préliminaire du problème d’indépendance entre requête et mise à jour. Une requête est indépendante de la mise à jour lorsque l’exécution de la mise à jour ne modifie pas le résultat de la requête. Bien que ce problème ait été intensivement étudié pour des fragments de calcul relationnel, il n’existe pas de travaux pour le langage de requêtes standard pour le web sémantique. Nous proposons une définition de la notion de l’indépendance dans le contexte de SPARQL et nous établissons des premières pistes de analyse statique dans certains situations d’inclusion entre une requête et une mise à jour. / Static analysis is a core task in query optimization and knowledge base verification. We study static analysis techniques for SPARQL, the standard language for querying Semantic Web data. Specifically, we investigate the query containment problem and the query-update independence analysis. We are interested in developing techniques through reductions to the validity problem in logic.We address SPARQL query containment with optional matching. We focus on the class of well-designed SPARQL queries, proposed in the literature as a fragment of the language with good properties regarding query evaluation. SPARQL is interpreted over graphs, hence we encode it in a graph logic, specifically the modal logic K interpreted over label transition systems. We show that this logic is powerful enough to deal with query containment for the well-designed fragment of SPARQL. We show how to translate RDF graphs into transition systems and SPARQL queries into K-formulae. Therefore, query containment in SPARQL can be reduced to unsatisfiability in K.We also report on a preliminary overview of the SPARQL query-update problem. A query is independent of an update when the execution of the update does not affect the result of the query. Determining independence is especially useful in the contest of huge RDF repositories, where it permits to avoid expensive yet useless re-evaluation of queries. While this problem has been intensively studied for fragments of relational calculus, no works exist for the standard query language for the semantic web. We report on our investigations on how a notion of independence can be defined in the SPARQL context

The beginning of the 1990s saw many African countries embarking on the process of drafting new constitutions as they abandoned independence constitutions. Most of the independence constitutions were perceived as constitutions without constitutionalism and they were generally blamed for failure of democracy and the rule of law in Africa. The study analyses the state of democracy and constitutionalism and the impact that colonialism had on the African continent. Apart from the spurt of new constitutions adopted, democracy is growing very slowly in most African states with widespread human rights violations and disregard for the rule of law and the principle of separation of powers, still holding the centre stage. Judicial independence is an important component of democracy in the modern state. The study therefore scrutinizes how the principle of judicial independence can be promoted and protected to enhance democracy. One important mechanism which plays a crucial role in safeguarding judicial independence is the way judicial officers are appointed. The study selects four countries – Swaziland, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa and analyses how judicial officers are appointed in these countries in an effort to find an effective and optimal approach.The premise of the study is centred on the role of constitutionalism and the process of appointing judges as a means of promoting and safeguarding democracy in these selected countries. / Public, Constitutional, and International Law / LLM

Introdução: Armadilhas automáticas entomológicas são ferramentas importantes para a vigilância e controle de espécies de mosquitos vetoras. Vários estudos mostraram que a armadilha CDC com CO2 + Lurex® e a CDC luminosa são efetivas para a amostragem de culicídeos. A Mosquito Magnet® foi comparada com diferentes métodos de coletas, incluindo a isca humana, para amostragem de mosquitos vetores. Como resultado, a armadilha tem demonstrado boa capacidade de amostragem. No presente estudo, a eficácia da Mosquito Magnet® Independence foi comparada com as armadilhas CDC luminosa e a CDC com atrativos, mas sem luz. As coletas foram realizadas em áreas rurais no sudeste do bioma de Mata Atlântica. Objetivo: Comparar a eficácia da armadilha Mosquito Magnet® Independence + Lurex3® com a da CDC luminosa e da CDC com CO2 + Lurex3®. Métodos: As armadilhas foram instaladas em três locais diferentes durante três dias consecutivos em áreas rurais do município de Iguape, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, de janeiro a junho de 2012. As armadilhas foram colocadas diariamente às 6h00 pm (ou 7h00 pm, durante os dias de horário de verão) e removidas às 6h00 am (ou 7h00 horas durante os dias de horário de verão). Para avaliar a eficácia das armadilhas para coleta de culicídeos, utilizamos os perfis de diversidade da Rényi, além de outros índices de diversidade, ou seja, riqueza, abundância, dominância, equabilidade e similaridade. Resultados: A armadilha Mosquito Magnet® coletou 53,84 por cento do total (19.016 indivíduos) de mosquitos obtidos com as três armadilhas. Por outro lado, a CDC luminosa obteve os maiores índices de diversidade de Margalef e Shannon. O índice de Pielou mostrou que as espécies se distribuem de maneira mais uniforme quando empregado o uso da armadilha CDC com atrativos. No entanto, a Mosquito Magnet® obteve o maior índice de dominância. O teste de Kruskal-Wallis mostrou diferença significativa apenas para os índices de riqueza observados na série de Rényi. O teste de Bonferroni apontou que apenas a armadilha Mosquito Magnet® apresentou diferença significativa em relação à CDC luminosa (p=6e-05). Os índices de similaridade apontaram maiores semelhanças entre as espécies coletadas pelas armadilhas Mosquito Magnet® e CDC com atrativos. Conclusões: O presente estudo mostrou que é possível coletar número elevado de espécimes de culicídeos com a Mosquito Magnet® Independence em áreas rurais no sudeste de São Paulo. Apesar da armadilha CDC não coletar uma grande abundância de culicídeos é considerado um método de coleta apropriado e indicado para os serviços de saúde, devido a sua funcionalidade e facilidade de transporte. No entanto, os resultados do presente estudo mostraram que a Mosquito Magnet® é mais eficaz do que a CDC luminosa e CDC com CO2 + Lurex3® para as atividades de vigilância entomológica. / Introduction: Automatic entomological traps are important tools for surveillance and control of mosquito vector species. Several studies showed both CDC trap with CO2 plus Lurex3® and CDC light trap to be effective for sampling mosquito species. The Mosquito Magnet® trap was compared with different collecting methods, including human landing, for sampling mosquito vectors. As a result, the former trap was demonstrated to have good sampling capacity. In the present study, efficacy of the Mosquito Magnet® Independence was compared with those of CDC light trap and CDC trap with CO2 plus Lurex3®, but no light. Collections were carried out in rural areas within the southeast Atlantic Forest biome. Objective: to compare the efficacy of a Mosquito Magnet® Independence plus Lurex3® with a CDC light trap and CDC trap with CO2 plus Lurex3®. Methods: Traps were installed in three different locations during three consecutive days in rural areas of the Iguape municipality, São Paulo state, Brazil. The traps were placed daily at 6h00 pm (or 7h00 pm during the summer day light savings) and removed at 6h00 am (or 7h00 am during the summer day light savings). To assess efficacy of the traps for collecting mosquito species, we employed the Rényis diversity profiles, in addition to other diversity indexes, i.e., richness, abundance, dominance, evenness, and similarity. Results: The Mosquito Magnet® trap collected 53.84 per cent of the total number (19,016 individuals) of mosquitoes obtained with all three traps. On the other hand, the CDC trap obtained the highest diversity indexes of Margalef and Shannon. The evenness index showed that species were distributed more evenly when using the CDC trap with CO2 and Lurex3®. However, the Mosquito Magnet® had the highest dominance index. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed a significant difference in the indexes of richness observed in the Rényi profile index. The Bonferroni test demonstrated that only the Mosquito Magnet® trap has a significant difference relative to the CDC light trap (p = 6e-05). The similarity index showed more resemblance between species collected by Mosquito Magnet® Independence and CDC trap with CO2 and Lurex3®. Conclusions: The present study shows that it is possible to collect large numbers of specimen with the Mosquito Magnet® Independence trap in rural areas in southeastern São Paulo State. In spite of the fact that the CDC trap did not abundantly collect mosquitos, it is considered an appropriate collecting method used by health service organizations because of its practicality and ease of transportation. However, results of the present study showed that the Mosquito Magnet® Independence is more effective than both CDC light trap and CDC with CO2 and Lurex3® for entomological surveillance.

Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

This study explores the shifting roles of teacher unions in pre-and post-independence Namibia, against the backdrop of a changing political context. My aim was to understand the roles of teacher unions both before and after independence in Namibia, and to explain how they changed in the different political contexts. To do so, I examined the teacher union roles in three distinct phases, namely pre-independence, immediately post-independence, taking in the period from 1990 to 1999, and the last decade, from 2000 up until today. In approaching the research questions, I worked on the assumption that understanding and explaining the roles of teacher unions in pre- and post-independence Namibia could best be achieved by interacting with participants who were or had been involved in education and the teacher unions in Namibia. I argued that their experiences would be important in constructing knowledge on the unions, particularly regarding their roles before and after independence. I chose a narrative design for the study, because it allowed me to interact with the participants to gain deeper meanings from their individual perspectives. Narrative design was appropriate to this research, because it also allowed me to trace the way events in education mirrored those in the national political arena, and to explain why particular tendencies emerged. I used the information collected during the interviews and document analysis as the data for the study. Four themes emerged regarding the roles of teacher unions in the contexts of pre- and post-independence Namibia, around which I conceptualized the study. These were the shifting historic roles of these unions in Namibia, the institutional frameworks and modalities for union participation, the contextual factors relating to the roles of the unions, and the changed roles of the unions in contemporary Namibia. The findings of the study suggested, firstly, that teacher unions play different roles in different political contexts, and that these roles are shaped by contextual factors. Secondly, the research established that the unions in the post-independence contexts did not necessarily have a vision of a labour-driven process of radical strategic change, as postulated by the theory of strategic unionism. Instead, the findings suggest that teacher unions in contemporary Namibia are influenced and shaped by the broader political and social factors of a new hierarchical political culture, by political and economic middle-class aspirations, and by undefined party-government-teacher union relationships. I conclude the study by suggesting an expansion of the concept of strategic unionism to include the nuances of political and economic contexts and aspirations. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

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